SARS medicine to be developed in near future?

Experts at the State scientific virology and biotechnology centre, Vektor, believe that medicines to combat SARS /severe acute respiratory syndrome/ will be developed in the near future.

The centre currently knows most of the technologies to develop medicines combating virus infections, Head of the Vektor Centre, Doctor of Biological Sciences Valery Loktev explained.

According to him, the Vektor archive has and is producing medications whose effect prevents the SARS virus in a living cell from "propagation". Therefore, if it does not "attack" the virus, but, at least, "prevents" it, Loktev pointed out.

A number of countries like China, Canada, the USA and Germany have already found a SARS pathogenic organism. Moreover, they have decoded its genetic structure and experts are aware of it.

However, Russian scientists need a biological material to make research, Loktev pointed out. The SARS virus is related to the most dangerous ones, and many countries' legislation strictly monitors any transference of biological materials connected with the disease.